Home
by light-and-Shadows-Mist-and-ice
Summary: *on hiatus It felt like one day they were filling out paperwork the next they had three daughters. Of course that wasn't what happened,in reality there were a lot more hurdles. Family AU
1. When it wasn't quite home

"One two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen seventeen eighteen nineteen–" Skye closed her eyes,

"Jemma," she interrupted,

"Right sorry, I'll stop." The sound stopped for a few moments and then slightly quieter than the last time,

"One two three four five six seven,"

"Jemma seriously I'm trying to sleep," Skye sighed. This usually happened at least once a week. Jemma would start counting seconds, she was good at it too. Sometimes Skye liked to to tease her she could be the world's first human clock. With most bunkmates she would have asked to be switched by now, but for the most part Jemma was really nice, and as much as Skye hated to admit, Jemma was also pretty important to her. But the nice ,well mannered stuff had kept her away at first.

Jemma was clever and well spoken. She didn't break rules or talk back. There was no reason why Jemma Simmons would be at St Agnes long. Except there was a reason. Turned out there was a few reasons. For one there was the counting. Apparently children counting in the night freaked people out. Reminded them of horror movies or something. Skye found it kind of stupid. It could be annoying at times sure, but usually if you just let her count for a bit she would fall asleep.

The second thing was the clocks. She told people the exact number of seconds their clocks were off, and the fact of the matter was she was usually off by at least a few minutes.

Skye wanted to know why that was but Jemma hadn't explained yet, Skye wasn't going to push.

It didn't really matter to her anyways, having your time a few minutes off wasn't that big a deal, and if Jemma didn't want to share she didn't. Either way it meant that despite Jemma's good behaviour and kind nature, they were both going to be at St Agnes for a long time.

"I can't sleep Skye," Jemma whispered. Skye opened her eyes again.

"Sit up," Skye instructed as she climbed down the ladder of the bunk bed. She sat next to Jemma. If Jemma couldn't sleep, she would start counting, and Skye wouldn't be able to tune it out. She sat on a wrung of the ladder facing towards Jemma's bed,

"You count, I'll count with you, then I'll go back to sleep when you are," Jemma nodded and buried herself in the blankets again,

"One two three four five,"

They kept counting until Jemma's voice stopped and her breathing slowed. Skye sighed again.

"Night Jemma,"

Hill placed the two case files on the desk.

"So all the paperwork is filled out , you should be able to pick up the girls today," the women looked at her watch, "sorry tomorrow might be better, it's almost midnight," May looked at the clock on the wall.

It was already late. Her and Phil both nodded in agreement.

"A few last notes before I let you go, Jemma might get you to change any clocks in your house that she'll regularly be telling time on, no one knows why but she seems to always have her own clock running in her head, she counts sometimes too. Skye is a good kid, but sometimes she has moments. She'll get frustrated or sad and she doesn't know what to make of it so she gets angry. Other than that they're good kids, Jemma has a few health problems and they both have some trauma." Maria looked them in the eyes, "That should be all, have a good night, see you in the morning,"

Skye and Jemma were sitting on the front steps of the orphanage. Skye had been sent out to 'burn off some energy, because today was a big day,' whatever that meant, no one wanted to explain it to them. Jemma had chosen to follow her.

"Maybe you're getting moved to a new foster home," Jemma guessed.

"Maybe you are so I'm getting a new bunkmate," Skye countered. Jemma sighed,

"I hope not," Jemma looked at her, "I know it's selfish, but I hope neither of us gets moved,"

"It's not selfish, I don't want either of us to get moved either," they looked at each other, " if we are though remember, the meeting point is LA, you'll still be Jemma Anne Simmons and I'll be Mary Sue Poots, I'll wait for us to find each other to change my name," Skye reminded her,

"Yeah," Jemma responded, "We'll find each other and we'll be okay," Skye started to respond but they were cut off,

"Skye! Jemma! Come inside please." They both looked at each other nervously.

As they walked inside the building a nun immediately told them to go up to their rooms and pack their things.

"Both of us?" Skye asked,

"Yes go, pack your things,"

"Your sure you have everything?" Skye asked Jemma,

"Yeah ,are you," Jemma responded, Skye nodded. They both dragged their feet into the office. Jemma opened the door and they both went in,

" Jemma, Skye these are the Coulsons,"

"The May - Coulsons," both of the adults corrected,

"Yes," responded the nun, " the May - Coulsons, they're going to be your foster parents,"

"Both of us," Skye clarified, the nun nodded,

"Your leaving right now, the paperwork is already filled out,"

Jemma and Skye didn't talk at all in the parking lot. Jemma answered a few questions that she was asked and Skye nodded and shook her head a few times but other than that the girls were completely silent,

"Do you two ride in the car with booster seats? We have two but we didn't know if you'd need them," May asked,

"I do, Skye doesn't," Jemma responded, "thank you for supplying us with some," she dropped her head again and kept walking.

Coulson looked over at May. As they neared the car both girls started to pull their backpacks off. Coulson opened the trunk for them,

"Thank you," said Jemma looking up again, she looked at Skye expectedly, Skye stayed quiet for another minute then Jemma made her glare more obvious,

"Thank you," muttered Skye, tossing her bag in the trunk. May opened the doors for them and went to take the booster seat out, Skye stopped her at the last second,

"I want a booster seat!" Skye exclaimed, "please," she added on at the end. May nodded and put the booster seat back in. Skye stepped away from the car allowing Jemma to climb in. Both did their own seatbelts up.

"Have you two had lunch yet?" asked Coulson.

"No not yet," Jemma responded,

"Well we can pick something up, or you could eat at home if you'd prefer," Coulson told them. Both girls nodded but gave no preference. May raised her eyebrows at him.

"Home?" she asked, Coulson nodded,

The ride home was just as awkward as would have been expected. Based on the fact that Skye and Jemma wouldn't talk in general and May never talked while driving, which meant awkward silence and quiet radio music.

Until the moment they finally arrived at the house.

Six months earlier

"Your leg's bleeding, here let me look," Skye shook her head,

"I don't need your help, just stay away from me," her new bunkmate was nothing less than annoying and Skye was just planning on ignoring her. Apparently however her new bunk mate had other plans,

"Please just let me look, it could get infected," she argued,

"No!" Skye hissed, "I don't need you or anyone else taking care of me!" The girl remained unfazed,

"Well that's just silly, just because you don't need someone taking care of you doesn't mean you shouldn't have someone to ," she climbed up the ladder and sat across from her, "really it will just get worse if you don't let someone clean it," Skye stuck out her leg defeated. Clearly ignoring this girl was not an option,

"I'm Jemma by the way,"

"I'm Skye," she growled Jemma smiled at her none the less,

"It's nice to meet you,"

Present day

"I'll help you unpack your stuff if you help me unpack mine," Jemma suggested, Skye nodded.

They started up the stairs before they were stopped by May,

"I could help you with your bags as well," They both glanced at each other,

"Okay," decided Skye nervously, Jemma nodded.

May had been hoping to get an idea of what the girls needed, what they already had and what should probably be replaced. Turned out they didn't have much. A few pairs of jeans that wouldn't have to be replaced, and Jemma had a nice pair of shoes but they were seemingly a few sizes smaller than the other pair in her bag. Skye didn't have much other than a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, at least not that was in good condition. The unpacking took less time than May would have expected, her plan had been that Phil would have finished lunch by now. Apparently they still had a while. Maybe she would be able to get the girls to talk to her in that time. She wasn't sure she should get her hopes up. So far the girls still hadn't talked outside of answering questions and Skye's random change of heart about the booster seat in the parking lot. May was starting to get nervous. There had to be a reason they weren't talking, maybe it was her. She didn't come off as the warmest person.

She was trying and Maria had said that was the main thing that mattered.

"So I heard you two are pretty close," she stated. She mentally hit herself. Even she didn't know what she was talking about. She had to let out a small sigh of relief when they just nodded at her instead of giving her one of those 'judging you' kid looks.

Phil walked into the room and May relaxed a bit. People were always shocked when they found out Melinda May and Phil Coulson were a married couple. The main reason for that was that Phil was the kind of person who people immediately wanted to talk to. If anyone would be able to get the girls to come out of their shells it was Phil.

"Lunch is ready," he informed them,

Or maybe not. Maybe for now they would just settle with lunch.

AN: CARIN: Hi, yeah I don't know what else to say, hope you enjoyed,

Bye


	2. The first steps of a mountain

"After lunch I think I'll have to run to the store." May looked up, "you two can come if you'd like," Skye shook her head but Jemma nodded. They both looked shocked for a minute.

"Skye you can stay home with me and Jemma and Melinda can go to the store," Phil recommended. Both girls anxiously nodded.

"What will we do well Melinda and Jemma are at the store?" Skye asked. Phil shrugged,

"We could watch a movie," Skye nodded and went back to eating her food.

Not a lot of things scared May. Not the dark, or bugs. She had taken down people three times her size and been shot twice. None of those had scared her. This eight year old however, this 4"1 eight year old scared the living daylight out of her.

She thought she knew how to parent, but apparently not. She hadn't had a full conversation with either of them. Maybe leaving the house would help. Not that Target was the kind of place that encouraged mother daughter bonding time. She reached for Jemma's hand as they walked across the stores parking lot.

They walked into the store and her fears of Jemma running off at least stayed just fears. They entered the store and Jemma didn't let go of her hand.

"What do you need to get?" she asked,

" A couple of groceries and probably a couple things for you and Skye," Jemma shook her head immediately,

"No we don't need anything," May looked skeptically at her, "really," assured Jemma.

"I don't think there was a pair of pajamas in your bag that didn't have some sort of rip, and you maybe had one other outfit each and no shoes that you could wear other than the ones you're wearing," May pointed out.

"The clothes aren't as bad as they looked," she assured. May shook her head and walked Jemma over to the side of the hall and knelt down to her eye level,

"Jemma do you know why we wanted to become foster parents?" she asked. Jemma shook her head and looked at the floor.

"Because we wanted to give a good home to some kids who needed it, and we wanted to be parents. Part of that is making sure you have the clothes you need, but a bigger part of that is making sure that your okay." Jemma looked up and met her eyes, "Jemma do you think you can get some new pyjamas today?" Jemma pondered it for a moment before nodding. May smiled a bit,

"Good, but we should get some food first,"

"What movie do you wanna watch?" Coulson asked. Skye shrugged. "You could look at what movies we have," he suggested, Skye stood up and walked over to the movie shelf. Her face immediately lit up,

"You have the Captain America movies!" she exclaimed, "I haven't seen those! I read a captain America comic once, but I never got to see the movies," Coulson smiled,

"Do you want to watch the captain America movies?" he asked. Skye smiled even more and nodded.

May and Jemma walked through the store.

"Are there any clothes you like?" May asked. Jemma looked around. She grabbed a pair of converse shoes from the shelf.

"These are nice" she stated. May smiled,

"They are. Do you like them?" Jemma nodded slightly.

"You need a new pair of shoes, why don't we get those ones," Jemma shook her head,

"I don't need a new pair of shoes." May frowned.

"Well we'll come back tomorrow with Skye and maybe you two can pick some things out together,"

"Okay," Jemma agreed placing the shoes back on the shelf. For a second May considered sneaking the shoes into the cart, maybe Jemma would accept them as a gift. She shook that thought away. For now they would buy groceries and come back tomorrow and she would take this as a win.

It was never a surprise to walk into the May-Coulson household and hear _The First Avenger, The Winter Soldier_ or anything involving _any_ Civil War, especially not the one with Captain America in it playing on the television. So the fact that it had only taken four hours for Phil to have both Skye and Jemma sitting in the living room watching The First Avenger was not surprising.

Although she had to admit the movie had grown on her and the girls seemed to love it. Skye seemed excited by the entire thing and Jemma's eyes lit up any time Peggy Carter was on the screen.

As the credits on the film started to roll May looked over at Phil,

"It took you four hours and you've already made them Cap fans," she sighed.

"Skye is nine and she's never seen Captain America before,"

"Well it was a matter of national importance then," she laughed. Phil nodded.

"Plus I think Jemma's more of a Peggy Carter fan," He was definitely right. While Skye seemed to be attempting to have a conversation about the whole movie everything Jemma said kept coming back to general Carter herself.

Skye didn't like her new room being so far away from Jemma's. It was only across the hall but she was used to Jemma being in the same room. She rolled onto her side and looked at the clock.

It was late and she still couldn't sleep. She stood up and grabbed her pillow before walking across the hall. She put her pillow on the carpet next to Jemma's bed. She sat down,

"Night Jemma,"

"Night Skye," Jemma whispered back. Skye smiled a bit.

"Good morning girls how was your sleep," asked Coulson.

"Good," Jemma responded,

"Good," Skye agreed. Jemma knew she was lying. She felt bad that Skye had slept on her floor last night, tonight she would go sleep on Skye's floor instead. That way Skye could have a good sleep tonight. She considered telling the May-Coulson's that they would prefer having their beds in the same room, but then they might think she didn't like her room.

"That's good, May's awake as well but she's upstairs doing some exercise," Jemma nodded and wondered what they were having for breakfast. If May was still upstairs it would probably be a while.

"I think once we finish breakfast we'll probably go out and get you two some new clothes," he stated. Both girls nodded. Jemma wasn't looking forward to that.

She didn't need new clothes.

She had clothes.

They fit her well enough.

She didn't need new clothes.

She was trying to hold out some hope for the May Coulson's, and she could tell Skye was too. They had taken them both in, and let them chose the movie and May hadn't seemed upset when she didn't want to get the shoes, she hadn't gotten upset when Jemma pointed them out either.

No one had ever both wanted to get her new clothes and been okay with it when she didn't want any.

Still so far Skye hadn't gotten upset, and she hadn't started counting and even though the fact that there clocks were exactly 180 seconds off was bothering her a bit she hadn't gotten them to change them.

She was sure as soon as one of those things happened it was going to go just like it always did. Either they would yell at them a few times and then send them back or they would just send them back. She was sure of it.

Jemma turned around as May walked down the stairs already dressed. She looked across the table and realized Coulson was dressed too. Her and Skye were still in pyjamas.

"Skye!" she exclaimed sounding more worried then she meant too, "we should go get dressed," she said calmly. Or as calmly as she could. Skye looked confused but followed her upstairs.

"May and Coulson were already dressed," she explained. Skye nodded with the realization and they both went to their separate rooms. Jemma looked at the clothes in her closet.

She had hung up all her nice clothes and put anything else in the drawers.

She didn't have any T-shirts in her closet, but she had a couple of sweaters and two pairs of jeans. The jeans would last her six days as long as she was careful enough, and since she would be wearing the sweaters over top of shirts, those could probably last even longer. She would only need to do laundry once a week and to her this proved she did not need new clothes.

She knew she did. She needed new clothes and so did Skye but she wouldn't admit that. Even to herself. Because she was trying to hold out hope for the May-Coulsons but she just couldn't.

On the other side of the hall Skye was having the opposite problem. She couldn't seem to be pessimistic about this.

She knew there was still a chance it wouldn't work out. Jemma still hadn't started counting, she hadn't gotten angry, but they were nice.

They made her feel like she belonged, and like Jemma belonged too. Maybe she was just crazy, but she felt like maybe this would turn out to be alright.

She shook the thought from her head. She couldn't get her hopes up.

She looked at her clothes and grabbed the only ones that were considered her nice clothes. Whenever they got to leave the orphanage the nuns told her to wear these clothes. The only clothes she owned that were nicer than these were her Sunday clothes. Those were just for Sundays. Only Sunday morning at that. She wondered if she needed Sunday best with the May-Coulsons, they hadn't said if they went to church.

Either way it didn't matter, she would find out tomorrow, and right now she just needed to get ready for the day.

AN:Carin: Second chapter! Also just to clarify, I know that Skye and Jemma are two people and the description claims they have three daughters, I just need to decide when to introduce that third daughter. It will be soon. three or four chapters if not sooner. Also! Thank you to all the people who reviewed. They made me very very happy.

Anyways,

Bye


	3. No broken promises

The Target was a lot bigger than Skye had imagined. She had seen a few commercials for stores like these on TV at foster homes, but she didn't think they would be this big. Coulson looked down at them.

"We're going to go in through the target, and then go look at other stores in the mall," Skye felt mildly relieved it was a mall and not just one big store. She didn't know how you'd find anything in a store like that. Still it was pretty big, even though they were on the sidewalk now and she had dropped May's hand she grabbed onto Jemma's a little tighter. Jemma held on to her hand a bit tighter too.

May had expected that the girls would be close. She hadn't expected them to be this close. She had only seen them leave each others sides a few time. Maybe it was just a thing about being in a new house, but they had to start school on Monday, and they were in different grades. May was not looking forward to dragging to sobbing children away from each other and was hoping it didn't come to that.

She kept telling herself she was ready if it did, but everytime they grabbed onto each other's hands she was pretty sure if they started crying there was a strong possibility her and Phil would just pick them up, or take their hands or something and take them home.

That probably wouldn't be counted as a 'responsible parenting choice,'.

"Jemma!" exclaimed Skye, Jemma jumped a bit along with May and Phil, "those are the shoes you liked in the catalog!" Skye didn't seem to notice the stares. May looked to where the girl was pointing. Those were the same shoes as yesterday.

"Those are the shoes you looked at yesterday, why don't you go grab them, we can get them before we go to the next store," May suggested, Jemma nodded a bit,

"Thank you," she murmured before walking slowly over to the shoes and grabbing the box. She walked back again and placed them in the cart.

Skye was trying to walk ahead of the cart with Jemma's hand in her's. The issue was that Jemma was small for her age and was trailing behind. Skye didn't know if this family was going to work but she did know one thing, they didn't want Jemma to be perfect. Or at least they didn't care too much if she wasn't.

Once Skye had broken in to one of the computers, and she had seen her case file. She didn't know all the words but she knew they weren't good.

Violent outbursts,

Disregard for rules,

Those were the main reason she was rarely in a foster home. Jemma wasn't in foster homes very often either. Before she had been in lots though, and most of them had wanted to foster her because of what her file said,

Well behaved

Well mannered

Intelligent

Then people discovered the counting and the clocks. Now that was probably on her file.

Skye had never told Jemma any of that. She didn't want to make her sad. Now she might have to because otherwise Jemma was never going to be happy no matter how nice this family was.

"Jemma, you need to stop," Skye whispered,

"Stop what?" Jemma asked. Skye sighed, she wondered if it would be more or less frustrating if Jemma was being sarcastic.

"They're social workers Jemma, they know what every word on our file means, they know we're not perfect so you should stop acting like it," Jemma scrunched up her face, she apparently didn't buy it.

"How do you know they're social workers?" Jemma asked,

"May had one of those cards Ms. Hill has, it had her picture and her name and everything, and Coulson said they work together," Skye explained. Jemma seemed to consider that for a moment.

"Okay," Skye held on to Jemma's hand a bit tighter.

The rest of the shopping trip went surprisingly well. In fact the rest of the week went surprisingly well. The rest of the week of course was the rest of the day, but still.

"How are we supposed to tell their school uniforms apart? They look exactly the same," May exclaimed pulling the plastic tag off a sweater.

"They probably have the sizes on the inside," Coulson responded,

"That's true," May looked at the permanent tags. Coulson sat down with a bunch of hangers and passed one to her. She pulled the sweater she was holding on to it. Suddenly she had an idea.

"Pass me that marker," she said, pointing at a sharpie on the coffee table. She took it when he did and quickly wrote SKYE on the hanger. She grabbed the rest of Skye's uniform, pulled the sweater off the hanger and put everything on it how it would be worn. She grabbed another hangar and wrote JEMMA on it before doing the same with Jemma's. Coulson took another marker and they both put the rest of the clothes on the hangers.

"Well, that solves the problem temporarily,"

"Long enough for us to go to sleep,"

Skye woke up with a school uniform at the end of her bed. She groaned, uniform schools were always mean. The teachers always yelled and sent her to the principal's office. Then they called home and she was back at St.Agnes. She should have known that there would be a catch with the May-Coulsons.

Uniform school.

She hadn't been expecting that. At least the uniform seemed kind of comfortable. The sweater was one of the itchy ones though. Not soft like a hoodie. At least it had pants and sneakers instead of a skirt and Mary Jane shoes.

Skye grumbled to herself as she changed into it.

She looked at herself in the mirror in her room. Her hair was messy but other than that she thought she would make a good first impression.

She walked out into the hallway and wondered if the May-Coulson's would still make her and Jemma breakfast on weekdays.

She knew how to make toast so if it wasn't she'd be fine. She was pretty sure Jemma knew how to as well and if she didn't Skye would make her some. She wiggled her feet in her shoes and wondered if someone could help her tie the tie she was holding in her hand.

She walked down the stairs of the large house and found it almost entirely empty. She looked at the window and realised it was still dark, she had woken up too early. She sighed and sat down on the couch, well she was already dressed now. She stood up again. Then she realized something, that meant that Jemma wasn't awake, and she had fallen asleep with Jemma on her floor. She ran upstairs and pushed open her door. She scanned the room. No Jemma. She fell to the ground to see if maybe she had rolled under the bed. No Jemma. She pulled back the covers on her bed, wondering if maybe Jemma had pushed herself against the wall. Still no Jemma. She opened the door, not noticing the noise she was making. She opened Jemma's room and didn't see her anywhere. Where was she? Skye let a small sob escape her mouth. She walked out of Jemma's room and slammed the door behind her before sliding against it and tucking her head into her knees.

She heard footsteps at the end of the hall and looked up to find Coulson rubbing his eyes,

"What's wrong," he asked her sitting down next to her in front of Jemma's door.

"I don't know where Jemma is," she admitted. She felt terrible. She had always promised Jemma she would find her and now she had lost her.

"You know what I bet?" Coulson said standing up and offering her a hand to help her up. Skye stood up without his help,

"What?" she asked,

"Jemma probably went downstairs with May," he responded. Skye wiped her eyes,

"Really?" Coulson nodded,

"How about we go check before we panic alright?" he asked. Skye nodded and followed him down the first set of stairs, and then the second that were hidden behind a door she had thought was a closet. They walked down and Jemma was sitting on a chair as May kicked one of the punching bag things that she had seen at St.Agnes a few times in the storage room.

May was hitting it hard too. She was good. Maybe social workers got in more fights then she thought. She walked over to Jemma and sat down on a chair next to her's. Jemma was in her uniform too. Coulson walked over to May,

"I'm going to go start breakfast," May nodded,

"Thanks," Coulson's smiled,

"You two staying down here?" Jemma shook her head and Skye stood up with her.

The next few hours passed much too fast. Before Skye knew it she was in front of a class filled with desks and with a room at the back labeled "COATS," in big orange letters. Skye looked over at Coulson who had walked her to her class while May walked Jemma to her's. Skye had considered asking to walk Jemma to her class but even though the May-Coulsons didn't necessarily want the perfect kid she was worried they would think that was too much.

She clutched the straps of her backpack. Coulson put a hand on her shoulder,

"How about we go to the coat room," he suggested. She took a deep breath and nodded. They walked towards the coat room. Skye took her backpack and her coat off and put them on the hook.

She looked up at him,

"Are you okay if I leave now," he asked. Skye nodded. He smiled at her, "okay well have a good day," Skye nodded. As Coulson walked away she wondered how the seating plan here worked. She doubted that she would be allowed to choose her seat. It didn't seem like that kind of place. She sighed and walked towards the class anyways.

Coulson was on the way out of the office to go pick up Jemma and Skye when he was stopped by Maria walking in front of him.

"I have a new case for you,"

"Maria I'm off of work now," he told her,

"Coulson , this is important and you're the only person who will take this, everyone else is either on call or have too many cases," she argued. Coulson sighed,

"Okay, who's the case?"

"Barbara Morse, twelve years old. I'll email you the file and the address,"

AN:Carin: HEYO! Chapter three down! Sorry it took me so long to update but I had a story for school so I was working on that, but that's done now, at least the rough draft. Now we just have to do stupid editing. If there are a bunch of mistaken in chapters soon to come it's because my brain has run out of grammar and cannot proofread anything else. I don't love this chapter but whatever, it gets the story where it needs to be.

Anyways hope you enjoyed,

BYE!!!!!


	4. Barbara Morse

warning: there are metions of physical abuse in this chapter

9 hours earlier

"Barb! Al and his mom will be here soon," Bobbi sighed and looked in the mirror again finally deciding there was no way to cover up the bruise. She sighed and grabbed her backpack from the door before running downstairs. She grabbed her coat and pulled it on.

Her father was standing near the door waiting for her.

"I'm going to go wait outside for the Mackenzie's," she told him opening the door to leave, she got halfway out the door before her father stopped her,

"Barbara,"

"Bobbi," she hissed too quietly for him to hear,

"Tuck in your shirt," he instructed her. She listened tucking the part of her shirt that could be seen through the opening of her jacket into her jeans before running outside. She untucked the shirt immediately and ran to the front step to wait. She sat down and hoped Mack would be there quickly. She didn't like it outside of the house, not that inside was any better. Really it was worse.

After what felt like ages finally the blue car pulled around the curb. Bobbi ran over to it and found Mack in the back seat and his older brother in the front. She smiled as she entered the car,

"Good morning Mrs.Mackenzie," she greeted.

"Good morning Bobbi," Her and Mack playfully shoved each other a few times. Before both laughing.

It was there typical greeting method that they never missed on the short drive to school.

No one talked for the remainder of the drive and Bobbi and Mack ran towards the school as soon as they got to the school parking lot. They weren't late but they didn't want to take the chance.

They both ran into the school and down the stairs to their homeroom class.

"Where'd the bruise come from?" Mack asked as they both put their bags in their lockers.

"It's nothing," she responded,

"Bobbi," he responded, she smiled at him a bit

"See it's not hurting my face I just ran into a door," she felt bad lying to Mack but she didn't want to trouble anyone with her problems. Especially not her best friend. She thought about what classes she had that day. History with Mr.Barnes, Science with Ms.Potts, Gym with Mr.Odinson and she had something else too, art or something. Unfortunately she had the teachers most likely to ask questions about her bruise. She sighed internally. Apparently today was going to be a long day.

First class was uneventful. That was until she got stopped on her way out of the room,

"Bobbi," said Mr.Barnes voice from behind her. She gave a smile that looked real and really hurt her cheek where the bruise was, "where did your bruise come from?" he asked. She tried to act surprised and looked at her knee like she hadn't noticed the huge purple mark on her face. "It's on your cheek Bobbi,"

"Oh!" she exclaimed, "that makes sense I ran into a door earlier at home. I would've thought it would be closer to my forehead," she said. She wasn't a great liar but she knew she wasn't bad. Mr.Barnes didn't look convinced but she was gone before he could ask anymore questions.

The next few classes went about the same. Ms. Potts asked a lot of questions. Mr Odinson asked her a few and told her she should sit out during gym just in case.

Lunch was uneventful. She wasn't in the same lunch group as Mack so she sat against a wall in the cafeteria and ate her sandwich.

Because of when her lunch period was she only had one class afterwards. Art back in her home room.

She got there first and grabbed her sketchbook from her bag. She wasn't much of an artist but this class was the only one available.

She immediately regretted getting their early when she realized that Mr.Barnes, Ms.Potts and the school counselor were there.

"Barbara could we talk to you for a minute," she walked over to them and nodded.

Ms.Potts smiled at her,

"Bobbi were just concerned about the bruise on your cheek," explained Ms.Potts. "It's the third time this month you've had one visible and you're always wearing long sleeves and full pants," Bobbi thought to all the bruises covering her arms. She looked up at the group of adults. They looked like they really did care about this. Still she didn't know if she wanted them to know.

"Oh, that! I was worried I was in trouble," she exclaimed, still trying to pretend she wasn't panicking. The adults gave her a look.

"Bobbi where did the other bruises come from?" they asked. Bobbi shrugged,

"I fall a lot," that was just a lie and she could tell none of the were buying it.

"Bobbi can you please pull up your sleeve?" asked the counselor,

"What that's crazy!" she exclaimed.

"Bobbi, we just want to be sure, please roll up your sleeves,"

She thought about the hand shaped bruises on her wrist all the way to her elbow. She thought about the snap she had heard last night when her father had taken her wrist tight and thrown her against the wall and the bruise that had formed on her cheek overnight. She rolled up her sleeve up to her elbow and they looked at the multiple bruises going up her arm.

"Bobbi why don't you grab your things and we're going to go talk about this in the councilors sweet. Okay?" Bobbi took a shaky breath and nodded.

It was a short walk there and when they got there they went straight to the actual office.

"Okay, Bobbi I need you to tell me who did that to your arms and your cheek," said the councilor as she pulled out a notepad. Bobbi started stuttering trying to force the words out, "would it be easier if I started naming people and you could nod or shake your head?" Bobbi nodded,

"Okay, was it another student?" she shook her head, "was it a teacher?" she shook her head again, "was it someone at home," Bobbi swallowed a lump that was threatening to rise in her throat and nodded, "was it one of your parents?" Bobbi nodded, "was it your mom?" Bobbi shook her head again, "It was your dad then," Bobbi let a few tears fall down her face and nodded.

"He doesn't mean to," she choked out, "really he doesn't,"

"What do you mean Bobbi?"

"He doesn't, he doesn't mean to," she sobbed,

"Bobbi no matter what, even if he gets very angry, or very drunk it's not your fault that you're getting hurt, okay?"

Bobbi felt a small sob escape her mouth. She nodded a bit.

"Bobbi does your mom live with you?" Bobbi shook her head,

"No she died when I was three," she responded. The councillor nodded.

"Bobbi I'm going to make some calls, if you want you can stay here or you could go sit in Ms. Potts class." Bobbi considered her options and stood up,

"I'm going to go wait with Ms.Potts," she said. The counselor handed her a class slip for her to give to Ms.Potts and show to anyone who asked where she was going in the hallway.

She walked to Ms.Potts classroom and handed her the slip.

Ms.Potts didn't have any classes this period so the room was empty. Ms.Potts read the paper gave her a small smile and then nodded at her. Bobbi went and sat at the back of the class. She finally pulled her sleeves back down covering the bruises again. She waited for about a half hour before the councilor came back,

"Bobbi, we have a social worker coming to get you, his name is Phil Coulson he'll be here shortly," tears started falling down Bobbi's face again. Ms.Potts stood up and walked over to her,

" Hey Bobbi, it's going to be okay, I know Phil, he's going to be sure you're safe," Bobbi shook her head,

"No!" she stood up and ran past the teachers she ran out the classroom door and towards the school's exit ignoring the footsteps she heard behind her. Ms. Potts and the councilor were wearing heels. They wouldn't catch up to her easily. She was a fast runner too, she had been on the track team last year. She was hoping this year too.

She got outside and kept running. She didn't look at the street before she crossed and she didn't stop until she slipped on a patch of ice. She looked to the right as she tried to scramble up and heard tires screeching. The car bumped her a bit but not hard enough to hurt her.

Her eyes filled with so many tears she couldn't see. She stumbled off the road and collapsed on the curb. The man who was in the car pulled over and ran over to where they were standing. She looked at him. He had a social worker card on necklace key thing. The kind teachers wore a lot. It said SOCIAL SERVICES at the top though.

Ms.Potts pulled him over. They talked for a few minutes and the school counselor sat next to her,

"Are you okay Bobbi?" she asked. Bobbi nodded even though she could hear her heart beat so loud she could barely hear the woman talking. She tried to breathe in even though the sobbing was suffocating her.

"I need water," she managed to choke out. The counselor nodded and they both stood up. "I have some in my backpack," they slowly walked to the school and then to Ms. Potts classroom. Bobbi was starting to feel her sobbing stop a bit. She opened her back pack and pulled out her water before taking a large sip. She put it back in her bag and picked it up before throwing it over her shoulder. They walked back to the front of the school where the social worker and Ms. Potts were seemingly finishing talking.

They both nodded and the social worker walked over to her.

"Hi, I'm Coulson," he said sticking a hand out to her. Bobbi put took it and shook his hand a bit,

"I'm Bobbi," she responded. She dropped his hand and put both her hands next to her sides.

"That's short for Barbara right?" he asked. She nodded, "that's a pretty name," Bobbi shrugged,

"I don't like it much," he smiled,

"It's definitely a mouth full, I can understand my full name is Phillip," she smiled and wiped her eyes a bit. "Bobbi I'm going to make a quick call why don't you wait inside the school," Bobbi nodded and walked towards the school door again. She was in for a long day.

"Hi, remember that time that your little brother and his girlfriend drove down to Philadelphia and you were at work so I went to get them for you and you said 'thanks Coulson, I owe you one," Coulson heard Natasha sigh on the other side of the phone,

"I feel like this is leading to something where I have to work while I'm on vacation,"

"It might be," he responded, "I have to talk to May first but I might need you to take a case,"

"Okay," Natasha sighed, "but only because of the Philadelphia thing,"

"I would expect nothing less," he could almost hear the eyeroll before the phone clicked.

He shook his head with a laugh and dialed May's number,

"Hi," he said when the phone picked up,

"Hey," she responded, "everything okay?"

"Yep, I was just wondering how you'd feel about another foster kid,"

"Why?" she asked with a suspicious tone,

"I have a new case and if you're okay with it I'm going to transfer her file to Natasha and then we could foster her," the phone went silent for a minute,

"If you think that's for the best," she responded,

"You sure?" he confirmed,

"Yeah," she responded, "I'm going to go, love you,"

"Love you too, see you at home," the phone clicked.

 _Hi Natasha, I'm going to transfer those files to you_


	5. Keep moving forward

Jemma shoved an apple slice in her mouth. She looked at the paper in front of her and scribbled down another answer

She glanced over at Skye, she wasn't doing her homework. She didn't have any. Jemma didn't understand why third grade was harder than fourth grade. Maybe it was just because of it being the first day. She sighed and looked at her paper again.

Today had been a good day.

She had made a friend.

He was named Leopold but she called him Fitz because that was his last name, Leopold was too long and it made him smile when she called him something other than Leopold.

He called her Simmons because if he was Fitz not Leopold she had to be Simmons not Jemma.

They both like science and math.

Despite liking math and homework Jemma was not interested in this homework. Skye was making a face. A bad face and it was worrying her. She had to work on her homework for now though. May said to work on it until Coulson got home and that wouldn't be for a while.

She would have to ask Skye later. She looked at the paper. It was simple math. Single digit addition. She could and did do single digit addition in her sleep. Or at least in her dreams.

She kept working on her worksheet and quickly finished it now that she had made a plan for talking to Skye once she did.

She looked up,

"What's wrong?" she asked Skye.

"Nothing," Skye responded. Jemma sighed.

"Okay," she and Skye both knew that this wasn't the end of the conversation but they would talk about it later that night. Or maybe tomorrow, it depended on a few things. A quiet creaky sound went through the house as the door opened. Jemma and Skye both glanced at each other. May said they needed to talk about something when Coulson got home. They both ran out of their chairs and to the door between the dining room they were standing in and the kitchen that had the front door. They both gasped at what they saw. A girl with red puffy eyes and blonde hair pulled into a ponytail. She had a bag thrown over her shoulder and was wearing a Star Wars shirt and black jeans.

The girl noticed her and Skye standing at the door and smiled at them. Jemma smiled back.

Skye wasn't sure about this new girl. She was older, older kids always thought they owned the house. Sometimes when they were way older they were nice, then they would think she was cute and try to take care of her. This girl was only a few years older. She wouldn't see her as cute, she wouldn't see Jemma as cute either. She took Jemma's hand. Jemma didn't understand what was going on. This was one of the only times she hadn't been the only foster child. All three of them were sitting in the dining room looking at the table. May and Coulson were talking in the other room. She looked at her and Jemma's hands linked together under the coffee table. She looked up at Jemma and held her hand a bit tighter in an attempt to get her to look at her. It didn't work and Jemma stayed focused on her already finished homework. Apparently she was checking it over. Skye wished she had homework to check over. Then again that required doing homework. She let go of Jemma's hand and put her now cold hand on the table. She watched as Jemma's hand clenched into a fist. Finally May and Coulson walked back into the room.

Bobbi had been instructed to follow May while Coulson talked to Jemma and Skye. As they left the room she heard him saying something about her staying with them. She somehow already got the feeling that Skye didn't like her. She followed May as they walked up the stairs and down a long hallway. Almost all the doors were open and she saw three bedrooms as they walked. Two with twin beds and one with a king sized bed. When they got to the last room May opened the door. The room was fairly chaotic, there were a few boxes laying about, there was no blanket on the bed just a pair of sheets. There was a nightstand and a dresser and as she took it in she realized what it was, a long unused guest room. May looked over at her,

"We'll try to get some of this stuff out tonight, and we do have a blanket for the bed. We're planning on letting all three of you make a few changes to your room, just trying to find some time to do so," she explained. Bobbi nodded. She didn't mind, it was nice room. Without the boxes and maybe with a bit of dusting it would look nice, almost fancy.

"I haven't been able to get my clothes yet do you know when I'll be able to?" she asked, May shook her head,

"I'm not sure but you can borrow some of my pyjamas for tonight and I'll wash your clothes then, if you don't have your things by that evening we'll go get you somethings okay," Bobbi nodded again. She squeezed her eyes shut trying to stop any tears. She pulled off her backpack and placed it on the room's bed.

"I'll give you a minute and then can you meet us down stairs?" asked May, Bobbi nodded and watched as May walked away and closed the door. Bobbi opened up her backpack. She looked at what was inside. She had a box of crackers which she always kept on her so she only needed her backpack if she needed to hide. She had a water bottle for the same reason, but that had to be refilled soon. She had her school stuff, her gym clothes , a stick of deodorant to go along with the gym stuff, and her phone, not her charger though. That was at her house. Or her old house. She grabbed her phone and put it in a drawer of her nightstand with the box of crackers. She placed her water bottle on the nightstand next to the deodorant and placed her bag in front of the nightstand. She took her jacket off and tossed it on the bed before opening the door and heading downstairs again.

The rest of the day past slowly and so did the one after that, in fact the only thing that happened on Tuesday was that they were able to send someone to get some of Bobbi's things. Wednesday as less eventful than Monday. Technically speaking, nothing happened during the day on Tuesday either. At around eight thirty something did happen though. On weekdays Jemma and Skye went to sleep at eight, and then Bobbi was supposed to be in bed an hour later. May was walking down the hall planning on telling Bobbi it was time for her to get ready for bed when she decided to make sure that Jemma and Skye were both sleeping, just in case. She opened Skye's room first and almost screamed when she saw a small figure on floor of Skye's room. She tiptoed across the room and was almost directly next to Skye's bed when she realized it was Jemma. Of course it was Jemma, that made much more sense. She suddenly wondered why they hadn't asked the girls if they wanted to share a room. They had been bunkmates at St.Agnes. They probably weren't used to sleeping alone. She would talk to them in the morning and they could do everything they needed to do for rooms tomorrow evening. It was Friday the next day, they had time. She grabbed a pillow that was sitting on the ground and tucked it under Jemma's head with a slight smile and walked out of the room. She turned down the hall in the direction of Bobbi's room.

AN:Carin: chapter five! This chapter is kind of short but you know, there will be bonding in the next chapter because everyone is going to like homesense or something. Unfortunately I'm not going to have a ton of backstory for anyone just yet, but I will get there. I'm going to do a review response now because originally this fanfiction wasn't going to have one but I want to now so I'm going to respond to reviews from now on,

 **LoneWolfOneill** : thank you so much, you were my first review on this story and it made me so happy to see.

 **Indigo Cain** : thank you! And I hope the second chapter gave some clarification

 **Tamara** : Thank you so very much for reviewing almost every chapter of this story, it means so much to me!

Hope you enjoyed

Potatoes and molasses my friends,

Bye!


	6. Forever?

**AN: Carin: It has come to my attention that Americans may not have homesense. I don't actually know much about America unless we're talking about Steve Rogers or The musical Hamilton. This still takes place in America but prepare for the word tuque and a whole bunch of "u" in colour. _Update_ : Americans do have homesense, but it's different from ours**

Skye didn't want to good to school and she wasn't going to tell anyone why.

The kids at school were mean. Or there was a chance they were mean. A very high chance, they were usually mean. Before her and Jemma were in a three/four split. All the classes at St.Agnes were split classes. It went pre-K and kindergarten, grade one and two, grade three and four, and so on and so on. Now she was in a private school where none of the classes were split classes. If they had too many people they would just put some of them on the waitlist. That was a word she had learned Monday when she had asked why they had no split classes. She just had to get through today and May had even said they were going shopping later which would have to be enough to get her through a friendless day. She sighed and grabbed her sweater for school before walking downstairs. May said they had to talk in the car, so she didn't know what that was about.

Maybe they had changed their mind about the store, or about her, or Jemma. Car rides were already the worst part of the day, it was the only time she couldn't avoid Bobbi, now she had this extra stress. She wished it were spring, May and Coulson said they could walk to school in spring. Then they said during the summer maybe they would all go on a vacation. She didn't entirely know what that meant but it sounded good. It also made it sound like her and Jemma were staying there forever. No one had ever told them how their lives would be in a season, let alone two. Skye liked it, even if she didn't believe it entirely.

She remembered them talking about the vacation in summer or walking to school in fall as she walked down the stairs. It had only been two days since they'd talked about it, there was no way they had already changed their minds. She repeated that over and over again to herself as she walked downstairs. She smelled a very sweet smell as she walked down the stairs. She wondered what they were having for breakfast. Usually they had cereal, they had good cereal though. Mini Wheats usually. Those were sweet but they didn't have a scent. She walked into the kitchen and looked around. Coulson was standing near the stove and May was sitting at the kitchen island. Skye smiled at them.

"It smells good in here," she exclaimed inhaling deeply, "what are we having for breakfast?" she asked,

"We're having cereal, it smells good because of a surprise for later," Skye scrunched up her face,

"I thought we were going shopping later," she stated,

"It's Friday, we have time for both room decor and baked goods," Coulson explained. Skye smiled and wondered what kind of baked goods could make the whole floor smell so sweet. She walked to the dining room, already having forgotten of her previous worries.

May could feel the panic rising in her chest as Bobbi and Coulson left the house. She was going to talk Skye and Jemma alone so Coulson had taken Bobbi to school a bit earlier than usual.

She walked to the kitchen island where the the girls were sitting.

She smiled at them,

"Do you two want your beds moved into the same room?" May asked. Both girls froze. "It's okay, I just wanted to know," Jemma slowly nodded and so did Skye. May smiled and decided she didn't need to mention that she saw Jemma sleeping on the floor. They would get things moved around this evening but for now she had to get Jemma and Skye to school and then get to work.

Skye tried to avoid being trampled as she tried to escape the school hallway. She tightened her grip on Jemma's hand and tugged her a bit. She felt bad for pulling Jemma but she also didn't want to lose her in a crowd. That had happened on Tuesday and it had taken almost an hour for , her , May, Coulson, and Jemma to find each other. As her and Jemma finally entered a clear spot in the crowd Daisy tried to stand on her toes to see over the fifth graders, and some of the sixth graders, seventh graders, and eighth graders that were here from Bobbi's school across the street to pick up their younger siblings. Skye kept hoping up and down until she finally saw May and Coulson scanning the crowd for them. She smiled and started pulling Jemma through the crowd. Jemma usually just walked where she pulled her since she wasn't very good with navigating through people and she wasn't tall enough to see over people's heads. She looked over at Jemma. She was still right behind her even though she was running now. Jemma did move fast for how small she was. Finally they ran into May and Coulson. May smiled as she noticed them. Skye finally loosened her grip on Jemma's hand but still held on to her. There were still people all around.

She followed May and Coulson as they all walked across the street with a small group of others. They all turned towards Bobbi's school and walked towards the school's sports fields where Bobbi always seemed to end up in the ten minutes it took May and Coulson to get there and then get to her and Jemma's school, find them, and then cross the street. Skye skipped forwards in front of them as she reached the grass. She was in a good mood. Jemma let go of her hand as she started walking ahead of May and Coulson but she didn't mind. She could still see them if she looked back and she could hear them talking. She could also hear Bobbi laughing. She still didn't really like Bobbi but what she was doing was impressive. It looked like the cartwheels she used to see other kids do except it was more complex. She was doing cartwheels backwards and Al the way forward. She kept doing cartwheels without hands too. She watched as Bobbi waved at her she waved a bit. Bobbi waved to her friends and then ran over to them. Skye walked back over to Jemma and grabbed her hand again.

The group of five walked back to the street again and then to the car. Skye watched as the two schools faded into the distance.

Skye held May's hand in one hand and Jemma's in the other as they crossed the parking lot.

The plan was to split up when they got to the store. She was going with May, Jemma was going with Coulson, and Bobbi was going to stay close to her and May but was allowed to venture off by herself a bit.

Skye didn't know what she wanted for her room. Or her half of the room.

Skye watched as the doors automatically opened. Those had always freaked her out a bit.

She kept looking forward and they walked inside.

Bobbi grabbed a cart as they walked inside.

"Bobbi how about me or May will take the cart and you can take a basket," Coulson suggested,

"May should take it she's a better driver," Jemma insisted,

"I can drive," Coulson insisted,

"Yeah but May can drive a plane," Jemma grabbed a basket, "and they'll be closer to Bobbi so there's three of them," Skye smiled, not even grown ups could argue with Jemma logic, because Jemma logic was really smart.

She kept a hand in May's as the large group split up in to three. May was pushing the cart with one hand and only having a little bit of difficulty. Skye decided to drop her hand so that May would have an easier time. There weren't too many people in here and she wasn't going very far away.

She glanced around. There was blankets and sheets all around them. They were colourful and most of them had patterns.

"What colour of bedding do you want Skye?" May asked as she looked at the different colours. Skye looked around. She shrugged,

"Yellow maybe?" she suggested noticing some pale yellow ones on the top shelf. May looked to where the sheets were and reached up to grab them.

Jemma watched as May and Coulson tipped her bed on its side. She didn't think their plan was going to work but apparently they had measured both doorways. She wasn't quite sure they had measured the bed though. She also wasn't sure if the mattress would stay in place. She looked at Skye as May and Coulson moved towards the door. Skye scrunched up her face.

"Maybe we should just move the mattress in," Jemma suggested, "we can figure it out tomorrow that way but it will be better than–" she was cut off by a large bang sound as the mattress fell out of the frame. Jemma flinched and felt Skye grab her hand. Jemma walked over to the bed still holding Jemma's hand,

"I think we might need to take the bed apart for it to fit through the doorway," Jemma stated. Coulson nodded.

"I think you're probably right on that one,"

After about an hour, the bed had been successfully moved to the room across the hallway and Skye, Jemma and Bobbi were sitting in the living room. May and Coulson were in the kitchen doing something that Skye assumed was related to the sweet aroma that had filled the kitchen that morning. Skye had a sheet of homework in front of her and was writing down vocabulary words that she was supposed to have a test on on Monday, Jemma was working on some science homework she had specifically saved for home since she loved science, and Bobbi was working on something that looked really complicated. When Skye asked about it she had shrugged and mumbled something about seventh grade math.

Skye looked back at her work and sighed. She hated vocabulary. She could never keep up because of how much she moved around.

She didn't know how Jemma kept up so well at science. She just had to get a third of the way through the list today, she could study more Saturday and Sunday.

"Jemma what's ten divided by three?" she asked.

"Three point three ," Jemma responded after a moment of hesitation. Skye sighed. She couldn't do a third of a vocabulary word.

She decided she would do four today.

She looked at the words again and read through the second one.

Creativity

She thought about it for a minute and wrote down the answer.

Prosthetic

She didn't know that one. She marked it with a star, she would go back to it. She moved on to the next word.

 **Review response** **Agentspacegoon: Thank you sorry it took me so long** **Tamara: it does take a while, but they'll get there, and thank you!**


	7. Picture perfect

May looked at the cookie tray on the counter.

"We didn't burn them," she gasped,

"That's incredible," Coulson responded. Neither of them were the greatest cooks, and sure Coulson could make almost anything from a box, but these weren't. They were a family recipe from that book their parent had given them on their wedding day that they had never once used.

"Who's families even are these?" she asked,

"I think these ones are from my family," he answered. May shrugged and grabbed the cookie tray. Coulson got a plate and May poured the cookies on to it,

"Do you think they taste good?" she asked,

"As long as we didn't add salt instead of sugar,"

"Or forgot baking soda,"

"Okay so there's a chance they taste bad, but we have three tiny critics in the other room," they both glanced to the living room.

"We'll get better,"

"Hopefully,"

Bobbi looked up from her homework as May and Coulson walked back into the room holding a plate. She looked back to her homework. She glanced across the table as she heard a tap sound on the table. May and Coulson had placed the plate on the table. Skye smiled immediately and took one, Jemma paused, thanked them and took one as well. Bobbi sighed,

"I'm feeling kind of tired, I think I'm going to go upstairs and put my things away," Bobbi told them. She didn't look at them to see their response she just walked towards the stairs with her school books in her arms. She walked down the hall and opened the door to her room.

The new comforter was sitting on the ground and there was a bag of things on the ground next to it, which was next to the plastic bag containing her things which she still hadn't unpacked. She pulled the white blanket off of the bed and pulled the other one out of it's bag before tossing it on the bed. She pulled herself onto the bed and grabbed the tissue box that she had on her nightstand and grabbed her phone from its hiding place in the tissue box. She didn't have a nice phone, it was a really old smart phone with a slide out keyboard, but sometimes if she didn't have a hiding place for it her dad would throw it which was why she had an old phone now, it was tougher too. She checked for any new messages but there was none so she put it back in the tissue box and put it on her nightstand. She stood up and walked over to the homesense bag on the floor. May and Coulson said she could take down any art that was hanging on the walls and replace it with the new stuff she'd gotten. She pulled down the painting over her bed and replaced it with one that had the periodic table of elements on it. She dug through her things until she found what Isabelle referred to as her "bag o' pictures". She grabbed one of Mack, one of Isabelle and one of her mom and put all three on her bed. She grabbed the homesense bag and got three photo frames.

She put them on her bed too. She put them all in frames and placed them on her nightstand too. She smiled at the pictures.

She heard a knock at her door.

"Come in!" she yelled. Jemma poked her head around the corner,

"Can I look at your table of elements?" she asked. Bobbi smiled and nodded. Jemma smiled really big and ran over to the bed. They both looked at the canvas over the bed.

"Cool," she whispered. Bobbi grinned and grab her school bag,

"Do you like biology?" she asked. Jemma nodded, "This text book has some diagrams in it," she told her, she opened it to the biology section and pointed at the diagram. Jemma nodded and pointed at it too, the spine specifically,

"When that bends out of place it's called scoliosis, I had that, it was really bad, so they changed my spine," she explained. Bobbi didn't know what to say to that so she looked up at the periodic table of elements.

"Did you know that all of life was caused by a virus?" Bobbi asked. Jemma shook her head,

"At least probably anyways," Jemma smiled and climbed down from the bed,

"I'm going to go to bed now," Jemma told her. Bobbi nodded,

"Okay," Jemma ran out of them room. Bobbi curled under her blankets and closed her eyes.

On Monday Skye felt strange. She was cold, and her legs felt heavy and she felt like she needed a nap. She rubbed her eyes and walked down the stairs.

Bobbi, Coulson, and Jemma were downstairs but May wasn't.

"Is May in the shower?" she asked,

"I'm not sure," Coulson said, "Bobbi could you go check downstairs please?" he asked. She nodded and ran towards the basement stairs.

Skye sat on the chair next to Jemma and put her elbows on the table to place hands on. She closed her eyes and yawned. Bobbi walked back into the room and shrugged. Skye glanced her eyes back over to her. She still didn't trust Bobbi but she wasn't actively trying to keep her away because Jemma liked her.

"May wasn't down there," Coulson frowned and looked towards the staircase, luckily May came down at that very minute. Her hair wasn't properly brushed and her eyes were all red and watery, but she didn't look like she'd been crying. She looked tired, like Skye felt tired.

"I think you're sick," Coulson told May. May shook her head,

"Not sick, I was sick last month,"

"That's not how that works," he told her,

"It's how it works based on the amount of sick days I have per year," Skye looked up,

"I think I'm sick too," Jemma's hand was immediately on her forehead and Skye was groaning internally.

"You have a fever," Jemma told her. Coulson double checked and confirmed she did have a fever. Skye groaned and placed her head harder in her hands. She hated being sick.

"You two should go to bed," Coulson told them,

"But there's school today," Skye protested, " sister Bernice says 'Unless you're coughing your lungs out you have to go to school' sometimes sister McKenna would let us stay home if our fever was," she got a puzzled look on her face and turned to Jemma, "real or really,"

"Really," Jemma responded,

"If our fever was really high," Skye explained.

"Sister McKenna was really nice," Jemma added. Skye nodded in agreement.

"Well you're not at St.Agnes and there there was a lot of kids but here it's just you three so if you're sick you can get some more sleep until you feel better," May told her. Skye shrugged,

"I don't know,"

"Well you don't want to get anyone else sick either," Coulson told her. He did have a point. Skye nodded and pulled her shoes off before walking up the stairs and to her room.

A few hours later May and Skye were sitting in the living room with a large blanket over their laps and a movie on the television. Skye was trying to take in all of the living room but her eyes kept going back to a bunch of pictures on the wall,

"May are we staying here forever?" Skye asked,

"Do you want to stay here forever?" May responded. Skye nodded. She wanted to, a lot,

"Then of course you are," May told her. Skye nodded,

"Will we meet those people then?" she asked pointing at the picture frames on the wall. May nodded then stood up and grabbed a large book from the television stand. She walked back over to the couch and opened it to the first page. It had more pictures in it,

"Okay so that's Maria," May started pointing at a picture of a woman with her hair pulled back and her tongue sticking out,

"Hey! That's Ms. Hill!" she exclaimed,

"Yep," May pointed at another photo on the page, "and that's Bobbi's social worker Natasha," Skye traced a finger over both photos and May turned the page and pointed at the first picture,

"That's Pepper, and that's Tony, Pepper is one of Coulson's friends from high school," Skye nodded. She pointed at a picture on the other side of the page,

"Is that you and Coulson?" she asked. May nodded and smiled,

"We were fifthteen there," Skye paused and traced her finger over almost every line on the photo.

"How long have you known each other?" she asked,

"We were about twelve when we met," May told her.

"Did you meet at school?" she asked. May nodded and skimmed through the photos,

"That's us when we were twelve," she said pointing at another photo.

Bobbi was supposed to pick Jemma up today. Coulson had gotten a call while he was driving them to school and had to work late, and May was sick so her and Jemma were walking home today. She was fine with it though. Jemma was cool, she liked Biology and Chemistry and she wasn't afraid to be smart. She had always wanted younger siblings and even though Skye didn't really seem to like her Jemma did. She walked towards the elementary school and towards where Jemma always was. Jemma was talking to two boys. She didn't recognize the one on Jemma's left but she immediately knew the one on her right was Thomas Ward.

Thomas was a nice kid from what she'd heard but his older brothers were not. She didn't know a lot about Christian Ward but Grant Ward she did know. And he did not like her. Which was why when she saw him walk up to the three kids she didn't immediately walk up to them. She didn't want to cost Jemma a friend unless she had to. She stood close enough that she could step in at any moment but not close enough that Ward would see. Their mouths all moved for a minute and then Ward shoved Jemma. Just a bit, just enough to shove her over. Bobbi clenched her hands into fist and closed her teeth mouth as tight as she could without chipping her teeth.

She walked towards the group,

"Ward," she hissed. Ward turned around,

"Morse," he responded. She stared at him until he grabbed Thomas's hand and walked away. She spun around. Jemma and the other boy were looking wide eyed at where Ward had been standing moments before. Jemma shrugged and turned to the boy standing next to her,

"Bye Fitz," she waved. The boy waved back. As they started walking towards the gate Bobbi turned to her,

"You okay?" she asked,

"Yeah," she paused, "why is that Grant guy so afraid of you?" she asked.

"Same reason Hydra is afraid of SHIELD," Bobbi told her. Jemma made a confused face and Bobbi smiled, "because SHIELD always wins against Hydra," Jemma smiled,

"Yeah," Jemma exclaimed, "did you know Peggy Carter founded Shield?" she asked. Bobbi nodded,

"I did know that. Is she your favorite?" Bobbi asked. Jemma nodded,

"Have you seen Agent Carter?" she asked. Jemma shook her head,

"There's a show?" she exclaimed. Bobbi nodded,

"Two seasons, I'll try to find it so we can watch," Bobbi told her,

"Okay so if you like Carter, how do you feel about Star Wars?" she asked,

"Never seen it," Bobbi's jaw dropped open,

"Oh this is a problem we have to fix,"

"Jemma hasn't seen Star Wars," yelled Bobbi from the kitchen interrupting May and Skye looking at pictures. Skye turned towards May,

"What's Star Wars?" she whispered. May let out a small laugh,

"I think you're about to find out," she told her. Bobbi stormed in as Jemma tripped into the room behind her.

"Please tell me you've seen Star Wars," she begged to Skye. Skye shook her head and Bobbi's jaw dropped.

"I can't believe you've never seen it!" Bobbi fell flat on the ground. "This is unbelievable,"

"I don't even know what it is," Skye exclaimed. Bobbi let out a deep sigh sound from the ground. May was slightly surprised by Bobbi staying in the living room so long let alone her being this dramatic. Bobbi had mostly been sticking to her room. Thinking about it having all three girls in the living room was strange. May smiled,

"Well I'll try to find a copy of A New Hope ," Bobbi nodded,

"Thank you,"

"Are you going to get off the ground?" Jemma asked her,

"Eventually," Bobbi responded. Jemma nodded and walked over to the couch where she sat on Skye's other side.

May closed the picture album and looked around her. All three girls in the room was progress and she couldn't help but smile.

 **review response** **Tamara: thank you**


	8. Things that come and go

Two weeks past and the whole group started to fall into a schedule. It wasn't a great schedule but it worked. Wake up, leave the house, come home, and then Bobbi hid away in her room indefinitely while Skye and Jemma slowly became more comfortable talking about their day as days went by. The only time there was any group conversation was during dinner and even then it was a mess. Sometimes Jemma would tell them something about science class or her friend Fitz, sometimes Bobbi would mutter something about math or Star Wars but she was usually so quiet that they could barely hear her and sometimes Skye would tell a short story about her day all though that usually wasn't at meal time that was usually when Bobbi was hiding in her room.

Over all Coulson felt like his head was going to explode which was why he had called a meeting. It was only a meeting with May and they would have both been in their room talking anyways, but the ex-FBI agent in him wanted to make this mysterious.

"So we need to find a way to get all three girls in the same room at the same time." he sat down on the bed. May nodded,

"How about a road trip?" Coulson asked. May shook her head,

"That much time in a car with another person just doesn't work," May argued, Coulson nodded, she was right.

"I think a family game night would give similar problems," May nodded,

"Movies don't necessarily encourage conversation," May stated as she shifted under the blankets,

"And going to a restaurant would just be the same as eating at home but with an audience," this was starting to seem like a wild goose chase. He shook his head letting the topic go for the time being.

On Saturday morning Bobbi was awoken by someone opening her blinds,

"Time to greet the day sunshine," said Coulson's voice. She scrunched up her face at the light and the seemingly sincere nickname. Bobbi had been called a lot of nicknames, even sunshine a few times but it had never sounded caring,

"What time is it?" she grumbled,

"Eight thirty," he told her causing her to collapse on her back.

"But it's _Saturday_ ," she complained,

"I know if it was a week day you would already be up," he teased. She groaned not understanding why all of a sudden the May-Coulsons were so insistent on an early morning. "Get dressed and brush your hair, breakfast is almost ready," he told her leaving the room. Bobbi threw her blankets off and moved towards her closet. She looked around the room and realized the light wasn't turned on the blinds were just twisted open. She squinted at the window as she grabbed a t-shirt and a pair of jeans from her dresser. She changed and pulled her sweater over her clothes. She wasn't happy about waking up so early but if she had to be any ways she might as well get breakfast out of it. She looked in the mirror and decided not to brush her hair as a silent rebellion. She walked downstairs and through the living room where the curtains were wide open as usual. She walked into the kitchen where May was drinking something out of a mug, Skye was eating a piece of bacon and Jemma was drinking orange juice. Bobbi sat at the table and grabbed a piece of bacon before putting it on the plate that was already at her spot. She grabbed two more pieces and one of the seemingly hard boiled eggs that were sitting in a bowl. She took a bite of the bacon and glanced around the room suspiciously.

This was weird.

"Where did Coulson go?" she asked,

"He's outside getting some stuff from the garage," May answered taking a sip from her mug. Sitting closer Bobbi could smell the drink and it wasn't coffee, it wasn't juice either but it still smelled fruity. Maybe it was tea, she didn't know much about tea. She looked down at her plate and grabbed another piece of bacon before putting it in her mouth.

The door clicked open and Coulson walked into the kitchen.

"You find them?" May asked. Coulson nodded.

"Right where we left them," May smiled a bit and went back to her tea. Bobbi was confused but much too tired to care as she kept eating her breakfast. Bobbi finished her breakfast and picked up her plate before placing it in the kitchen sink. She walked back to the kitchen table and sat down.

"Bobbi do you have winter boots or snow pants?" Coulson asked. Bobbi shook her head,

"Not that fit," she added. Coulson nodded. He turned to Skye and Jemma,

"Do you two?" both shook their heads. Bobbi had no idea what her foster parents plan was and so far she did not like it.

Skye felt like they had been in the car forever. They had already stopped by a store and gotten snowsuits and boots. Now they were all wearing snow pants and boots with their coats pushed behind them. Skye looked outside the window and played with her seat belt a bit. It didn't help that the back seat of the car was kind of squished. Bobbi sat in the middle since she didn't have a booster seat and her and Jemma sat on either side. It was very squishy and Skye did not like it very much which is why when they pulled up to a big hill she let out a small scream of excitement. She in secured her seat belt and sat on her seat until Coulson opened the door. She grabbed her new coat and jumped out of the car. She pulled her coat on and watched as Bobbi got out of the car before closing the door. May and Jemma came around the other side of the car. May and Coulson walked to the trunk and pulled out a bunch of pieces of plastic that looked like really big pool floaties. They also grabbed an air pump. Skye watched as the plastic inflated into what looked like a giant pool floats but with a floor.

"What are these?" Skye asked,

"It's a kind of sleigh called a tube," Coulson told her, "we have three so you and Jemma can both go with May or I and Bobbi can take the smaller one. Skye nodded. Bobbi grabbed the small tube and May and Coulson both grabbed one. Jemma was walking next to Coulson so Skye figured she was going with May, not that she minded, May would be a good tube partner. Skye grabbed the end of it and started walking behind May.

By the end of the day everyone was tired. Tired enough that Bobbi had volunteered to piggyback Jemma to the car and Skye had begged Coulson to carry her, not that he had argued against it much. Now Jemma was asleep in her booster seat, Bobbi was fully passed out in her lap and Skye looked liked consciousness wasn't going to work for her too much longer.

May smiled as she glanced at them in the mirror. Her eyes went back to the road as she turned the car down the final street that would them home. She turned into the driveway. Coulson turned to her,

"Let's take the younger girls up first and then I'll come back for Bobbi," he suggested. May nodded. She unbuckled her seat belt and stepped out of the car before opening Skye's side of the car and unbuckling the seat belt. She pulled the small girl into her arms. She walked around the side of the car where Coulson was standing with Jemma in his arms. He unlocked the door and opened it. May unzipped Skye's coat and pulled it off. They placed both girls on the couch. They could be moved to their beds when Bobbi was inside. Coulson went outside while May pulled off Jemma and Skye's boots and snow pants. Coulson walked back into the house just as May finished putting away the rest of the snow stuff away. May pulled Bobbi's boots off but she had taken off her snowsuit in the car.

They took Bobbi upstairs and tucked her in. May brushed the girls hair away from her face before turning away and going back downstairs. May grabbed Skye from the couch and Coulson grabbed Jemma and they took both girls to their room. May put Skye on her bed and as she did Skye's eyes blinked open a bit,

"I love you Mama," she whispered. May smiled and felt like her heart was going to explode.

"I love you too," she whispered back kissing Skye's forehead as the girl closed her eyes again. She turned and kissed Jemma's forehead as well. Before her and Coulson walked out of the room and back down the stairs, May smiling so big her cheeks hurt.

 **AN:Carin: Hello! No review response this time so you just get me talking. Yay! No not Yay this is going to be awkward. Anyways this fanfiction has now reached 10 favourites and twenty four follows which seriously means so much to me so I just want to say thank you so much.** **Anyways,** **Bye**!


	9. Together

**An: Carin: So two people reviewed the story the night I updated so those responses will be at the end of this chapter.**

Mama and other variations did not become a constant in the May-Coulson home but a lot of the other traits Skye had shown did. In fact seemingly a day together had made a lot of progress. Bobbi hid in her room a lot less. All though she still wasn't too fond of physical contact she would usually allow her hair to be brushed out of her face or an occasional kiss on the forehead. Jemma had become a lot more talkative, and Skye had made a lot of progress. She had gone from being very quiet to talkative and funny and there were sometimes May would have even described her as clingy, which would have been frustrating for most people but for them their nine year old wanting to be held and cuddled was such a hurdle jumped over.

Unfortunately just when it seemed like they were finally getting out of the woods the nightmares started.

They weren't every night but they were woken up by the loud screaming at least three times a week.

The first time it was Bobbi. She had woken up screeching at the top of her lungs, sobbing, and covered in sweat. She had refused any comfort and shoved herself into the corner of her bed. She had screamed at them until finally May had sent Coulson out of the room and Bobbi had allowed her to sit next to her and rub her back while she calmed down and talked about it.

Next it had been Jemma. Jemma hadn't been woken up by her screaming but the rest of them had been. Once she had been woken up she hadn't wanted to talk about it. She just wanted whoever was closest to hold her and rock her back and forth while she counted. The next mourning she had corrected all the clocks.

Last had been Skye. Skye had woken up screaming and hadn't stopped until May and Coulson had given her heavy reassurance that she was at home with them and Jemma and Bobbi and no one was going to hurt her.

Then it happened again, and again except with a new order everytime. It didn't take long for them to know exactly who was screaming, and everytime it happened May and Coulson both spent the rest of the night staring at the ceiling.

Skye didn't entirely know where they were going but she was excited about it. Well other than the fact that it meant May was doing her hair. May wasn't so great at brushing out the knots gently. It was leading to a lot of 'Ow!' And a lot of 'sorry'. Finally May pulled an elastic around the end of a braid and both let out a long dramatic sigh. Skye ran a hand through her bangs which was now her only hair that was still down.

"Is it done?" she asked,

"Yes," May sighed, "it's not great, but I hope you like it," Skye turned to the mirror and looked at the braid,

"What kind of braid is it?" she asked, she knew there was lots of types of braids and this wasn't the typical three strand braid she was used to.

"It's a French braid," May told her. Skye smiled. She grabbed May's hand and the two walked down the hall to where Jemma was standing.

"You ready?" May asked.

Jemma nodded. Jemma came and held on to Skye's hand. All three walked towards the stairs. Bobbi was pulling on a pair of shoes and Coulson was putting on a jacket.

"Where are we going again?" Skye asked,

"You'll see," Coulson stated.

As the family got out of the car Skye took in her surroundings. It looked like the restaurant a foster family had taken her to. She grabbed Coulson's hand immediately and he smiled down at her.

"We're going to a restaurant?" she asked. Coulson nodded,

"We thought it would be fun and we have something important to talk about," suddenly she remembered the last foster family that had taken her to a restaurant. The Jones family. They had been nice and treated her like a daughter, then Mrs.Jones got pregnant and they sent her back. They had told her all this at a nice restaurant like this one.

Skye ran a hand over her arm and tried to push away the nervousness in her mind. Coulson seemingly noticed,

"Don't worry it's nothing bad," he told her. Still Skye kept her toes curled in her shoes as they walked inside and were taken to a table. A waitress came up and took their drink orders.

May smiled at them and so did Coulson,

"So we wanted to talk to you girls about something pretty important," Coulson started,

"We wanted to start out by telling you that your answer doesn't change anything," May added, "It's fine no matter what," Coulson nodded,

"So we love fostering you girls but there are some issues with it," that was all Skye needed to hear. They were sending her back. She stood up and sprinted towards the washroom. She locked herself in one the toilets and knelt on the floor. They were sending her back just like people always did. Her stomach felt like it was turning. She turned around and emptied the contents of her stomach into the toilet. They had wanted her and she'd ruined it. Her stupid nightmares had ruined it. She let out a sob and She felt the burning in her throat as she turned around and sobbed into her knees ignoring the awful smell. Suddenly anger surrounded her. May had said she was staying here forever. She hated when people said that and then sent her back. She hated that it was happening again. Especially with the May-Coulson's. She wanted to stay with May and Coulson and Jemma and even Bobbi as long as she stayed with her family, but they weren't her family. They didn't want her. She kept sobbing

For a second the whole family froze. Then Jemma went to stand up and May reached out to place a hand on her shoulder.

"Jemma you stay here I'll go talk to her alright," May stated. Jemma looked skeptical but sat down anyways. May stood up and headed in the direction of the washroom. She was immediately met by the smell of vomit and the sound of sobbing. She walked from where she could hear Skye crying.

"Skye what's wrong?" she asked. She was just met with more sobbing, "Skye sweetheart can you please tell me what's wrong," the sobbing got harder and May still didn't get an answer. She crouched on the ground.

"Why are you sending me back?" Skye whispered. May nearly broke into tears herself, they should have made it more clear that what they were saying wasn't a goodbye,

"Skye we're not sending you back, we're never going to send you back," May assured. Still the sobbing continued and Skye didn't unlock the door.

"Go away!" she exclaimed. May didn't leave the room but she did go sit on a small bench that was near the door. She waited a minute, "I told you to leave!" Skye screamed when she realized May hadn't left,

"I'm not going to leave you Skye, and I'm not going to take you back," May assured her. Still nothing, "Skye please will you come back to the table with me so we can explain,"

"I wanna go home I don't wanna stay here," Skye sobbed. May sighed and wondered when the plan had went off the rails.

"We can go home Skye, we'll let Coulson, Jemma and Bobbi finish eating though okay," the door unlocked. Skye nodded,

"And you're not sending us back?" she asked. May shook her head,

"No Skye, not ever," Skye nodded and wrapped her arms around May's neck. May lifted her off the ground and placed her on her hip.

"I love you," May told Skye as she tightened her grip on May,

"I love you too," Skye responded.

The entire family decided that the best idea was for them to pay for their drinks and for everyone to go home where they could eat dinner and finish the conversation. So now Jemma and Skye were snuggled one of the armchairs with Bobbi curled up in the other one and May and Coulson on the loveseat. For the first time Coulson was starting to realise that there was some issues with their home. Their car was too small for one thing, they also didn't have a lot of seating. They had a good sized love seat, and two chairs but they hadn't made a lot of changes to their home because they had thought that they were only going to have one foster child, Maria had told them that Jemma and Skye would both be a great fit for their family. Of course Bobbi had come to live with them with no warning. Somehow they were perfect. A thousand times better than any perfect family he or May could have imagined. And they weren't perfect their house didn't have enough seats, and their car didn't have enough space. They would work on it together, as a family. Which was why neither Coulson nor May had any anxiety as they all looked at each other from opposite sides of the room.

"So we're just going to cut right to the point this time," May told them. She looked to Coulson for him to continue,

"Our problem with fostering you is that there's a scary possibility of one or all of you being moved, which is why, we want to adopt you,"

 **AN:Carin: I swear the next chapter will be centered around characters other than May and Skye. Also this chapter was kind of sad, the next one will be much less sad. Anyways review response time,** **Chapter seven** **Guest: thank you** **Tamara: I agree Star Wars is great,** **Chapter eight** **Slynnr: Maybe? I'm not sure yet, I do have a couple of ideas if I do.** **LoneWolfOneill: Thank you! I'll definitely take a Star Trek marathon into consideration for a scene,** **Tamara: It felt like it fit with the scene**


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